عنوان

Business, politics and family ties :

Number

TLets372823

Title Proper

Business, politics and family ties :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Baggott, Clare Maria

Title Proper by Another Author

three case studies : the Cerchi, Dell'Antella and Portinari of Florence, 1260-1360

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Spufford, Peter ; Spufford, Margaret

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Keele University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

1985

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Keele University

Text preceding or following the note

1985

Text of Note

Despite the importance of the patrician family to the history of Florence, there have been few modern studies of any representative family or families in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the formulative period in the evolution of the commune, when the political organisation, the business techniques, and the patrician structure of the city's society and administration were emerging and developing. The Cerchi family acts as the main focus to this study. As well as highlighting the scope of the business and commercial activities of a Florentine international merchant and papal banking concern, the Cerchi also played a central role in the factional struggles which exploded between the Whites and the Blacks around 1300. The dell'Antella, part of the late twelfth century migration to the city, never achieved great social or political eminence. Their business concerns were solid rather than remarkable, but the family's position within the ranks of the Florentine oligarchy was never in doubt. Members of this family were tireless in their service to the commune's civic administration. The Portinari, the longest established of the three families in the city, also enjoyed the most secure status. Celebrated both as the family of Dante's Beatrice and as founders and patrons of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, the Portinari are equally worthy of study for the remarkable number of ties and connections they show between their political allies, their business colleagues and employers, and their marriage partners. The thesis also focuses u'pon aspects of the charitable and religious preoccupations of the Florentine merchant and attempts to draw together some of the ways in which we can identify the role and involvement of women in patrician society: their participation in religious and charitable activities, marriage and widowhood, and their ownership of and responsibilities for land and property.

DG Italy

Baggott, Clare Maria

Spufford, Margaret

Spufford, Peter

Keele University

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y